Contact Information

Mixed Media/Lighting & Timepieces

Artist's Statement

Randall Cleaver’s work combines what has been discarded to create timekeeping artifacts. Their utility and motion involve the viewer in their complexity of forms, textures, relationships, and humor.

Creating with found objects started as an inexpensive way to obtain materials, but soon, the objects themselves became a source of inspiration. Cleaver tries to give his viewer the sense that the parts were manufactured to form the object, in order that the various parts transcend what they were.

The clocks, as a body of work, are a conglomerate of ideas Cleaver has had over the years: actual, as opposed to implied, motion; machine sounds emanating from the pieces; humor; functionality; the sense of history in timepieces; and the near obsession our society has for time.

The clocks also give an archetypal starting point with which to view his pieces. From there the viewers can work their way deeper into the works.

The lamps are similar to the clocks in that they too are viewer friendly. Instead of the movement of clock works to accent the piece, there is the glow of the bulb, not only accenting the piece, but changing the mood of the entire room when lit.

Cleaver’s working style is intuitive. He starts with a germ of an idea or a particular found object that will suggest a piece, but as it grows, different relationships will be discovered and the form of the work will respond to these discoveries.